viernes, abril 26, 2013

Campesinos of Asoquimbo Liberate Lands under Control of Emgesa-Endesa-Enel

On
April 14th, after closing the ballot boxes of the irregular elections
for governor of the Department of Huila, the “Voto en Blanco”, the
option against the regional political class received 80,000 votes
compared to 128,000 votes in support of the candidate Carlos Mauricio
Iriarte. Iriarte had a campaign of hundreds of thousands of Colombian
Pesos, while the “Voto En Blanco” did not have a budget and was a
success in the regions of the department where there are struggles
against different mega-development projects.That
same evening, peasants from the Association of Affected Peoples of the
Quimbo Hydroelectric Project-Asoquimbo from across the region impacted
by the dam have taken over the farms “la Guipa” and “La Virginia”
(highway from La Jagua to Tarqui, in the Municipality of Altamira) as an
act of territorial defense and to pressure the state to suspend the
project and create a Peasant Reserve.

The
farm “la Guipa” a dairy and beef cattle ranch of about 80 hectares
that in its moment of production employed over twenty workers
permanently. The farm “La Virginia” is approximately 180 hectares and
employed over fifty workers who cultivated tobacco, rice, corn, sorghum
and cattle as well. These farms were illegally bought by the company
when they purchased these properties that were part of the local
economy and chains of production of local inhabitants.

It
has been two years that Emgesa purchased and abandoned these lands,
denying productivity to various peasant families that have not decided
to recuperate these two farms and create a different life for those
present. Associations are forming that will focus on the cultivation of
different crops and raising cattle on the liberated lands. The youth
part of the collective “Jaguos por el Territorio” are cleaning the
underbrush from an area adjacent to the Magdalena River waiting for the
next waning moon to plant plantains, yuca and other food crops without
chemicals and using different agro-ecology methodologies. “We want to
recuperate and take care of nature and our territory as well as protect
sacred spaces such as the petroglyphs” explained the youth Ruben
Trujillo from La Jagua.

People continue to arrive from all parts of the affected area in this
collective force to recuperate the lands that local inhabitants have
worked for centuries, maintaining the chains of production of the region
that at this moment the multinational company Emgesa-Endesa-Enel
controls and does not permit local communities to subsist from.Peasants
are collecting funds for the seeds, fuel and machinery to start
producing food from these lands immediately. The hunger and unemployment
of the local population has reached such a level of urgency that the
liberation of the territory by its inhabitants has been chosen method.Those affected by the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project are liberating farms
and demanding that the environmental licenses for the Quimbo H. P.,
the Master Advantage Plan of the Magdalena River and the activities of
the petroleum company Emerald Energy in the area of the paramo of
Miraflores be permanently suspended and immediately initiate the
creation of a Agro-Nutritional Peasant Reserve in the affected areas.Those
interested in supporting the process of territorial defense and
liberation please contact the Association of Affected Peoples of the
Quimbo Hydroelectric Project-Asoquimbo. Information: movilizacionquimbo@gmail.com